North Korean defector: Kim would meet with Trump, but Trump shouldn’t allow it

Thae Yong Ho, a North Korean diplomat stationed in London who recently defected to South Korea, told reporters from CNN that Kim Jong Un won’t be parted with his nuclear weapons program, but has expressed an interest in meeting with new American president, Donald Trump.

“As long as Kim Jong Un is in power, there’ll be no chance for the world to improve the human rights issue” or cancel “the nuclear program,” he said.

He also explained that American-led sanctions are working in the reclusive Asian country, and that they have had a clear effect on domestic policy and the perceptions of Kim Jong Un among his people, and even senior leaders within his staff. According to Yong Ho, the financial repercussions of Kim’s policies are having a “psychological effect on North Korean people and high-ranking officials,” and that he anticipates that we’ll begin to see even more members of Kim’s elite flee the nation out of fear for their own safety due to Kim’s continued issues establishing legitimacy as a leader in the minds of his people.

“If Kim Jong Un decides to kill someone, if he thinks that he is a threat or he scared him, he just wants to get rid of him, that is the present reality of North Korea,” he said.

According to Yong Ho, Kim did not anticipate that Donald Trump would win the presidential election, but was pleasantly surprised at the outcome, calling it “a good opportunity for him to open a kind of compromise with the new American administration.”

Trump indicated during his presidential campaign that he would be open to meeting with the North Korean dictator. North Korea has continued to advance a nuclear weapons program that Trump may hope to put an end to through easing of economic sanctions placed on the nation, though Yong Ho doesn’t believe such an agreement could be made.

Current sanctions have crippled the already struggling North Korean economy. Yong Ho pointed out that Kim had initiated plans to establish two government ministries for the sole purpose of seeking foreign investment, but has since had to abandon plans for both as a result of the “ground-breaking” sanctions, but in an echo of Donald Trump’s own sentiments, he believes China must take on a more active role in enforcing such sanctions for them to have a real effect.

Yong Ho also urged President Trump not to meet with the North Korean leader, stating that such an engagement would grant Kim a legitimacy he does not currently have. Although the unquestioned leader of the North Korean state, Kim has yet to establish a real sense of validity to his rule among many North Koreans who don’t see him as quite as “supreme” a leader as they did his father and grandfather.

“After 5 years in power, he couldn’t even tell the North Korean people about his date of birth, when he was born, about his mother, his relationship with his grandfather,” Yong Ho explained about Kim’s inability to garner real support among his people.

“Even Chinese President Xi Jinping and even Russian President Putin — they haven’t even met Kim Jong Un,” he added regarding the lack of recognition even nations friendlier to North Korea have awarded its leader.

Yong Ho escaped North Korean officials by fleeing with his family from London to South Korea. In London, he claimed to be under near constant surveillance and that the North Korean regime leveraged his family’s safety to ensure he maintained North Korean ideals in the face of Western politics.

“The children are used by Kim Jong Un as kind of hostage,” he says. “Kim Jong Un abuses even the love between parents and children.”

He went on to express his gratitude to those who helped get him and his family away from the danger posed by defecting from the North Korean state, but said his new life is bitter-sweet.

“It made my life very miserable because I spent 50 years of my life on the wrong side, and I have to deny my past.”

Image courtesy of CNN

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About the Author

Alex Hollings
Alex Hollings served as an active duty Marine for six and a half years before being medically retired from service. As an athlete, Hollings has raced exotic cars, played Marine Corps football and college rugby, fought in cages, and even wrestled alligators. As a scholar, he has earned a master’s degree in Communications from Southern New Hampshire University, as well as undergraduate degrees in Corporate and Organizational Communications and Business Management.

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Jim F

Seems to mirror the behavior of Stalin who kept his underlings terrified. Some of them denouncing family members for saying something politically incorrect. Others for suspicion of harboring thoughts not in perfect coherence with the party line..
Good article.

Susan B

Thanks Alex. It must be a horrible awareness for this man to realize just how blind he had been, and how he helped to continue keeping his countrymen equally blind for so many years. He makes a valid argument for Trump not meeting with Kim Jong Un.

Pat G

Yong-ho knows what he's talking about, he's seen life in North Korea under Kim, even though as a diplomat I'm sure he lived better than most. NK is so underdeveloped compared to SK, it's a sad situation. We've heard before that Kim's regime was ready to fall, but it hasn't happened. I guess it's not surprising no military leader has stepped up to make an attempt, it's scary dealing with a nutcake dictator, and China might intervene. Kim won't give up his nuke program, he's got no problem depriving his people of the needs of life, like food and electricity. How could a deal be made with such an immoral beast? Certainly Trump should not meet with him as if he were a legitimate leader. He is an enemy of all human liberty, a Communist dictator who abuses his population at will. It seems that as long as Kin continues on this current path, the only proper dealing we should have with NK is to enforce sanctions. Thanks, Alex